Lew Jenkins considers himself a history buff, but his interest in the past does not distract him from a business many consider futuristic.
As chairman of Premenos Technology Corp., Mr. Jenkins heads a company that helps corporations exchange information electronically - a process known as electronic data interchange or EDI.
His involvement predates most bank interest in EDI, and he rarely works directly with financial institutions.
However, as he zealously sells businesses on the benefits of EDI, he is doing banks the favor of building a business population ready to consume electronic payment services.
Mr. Jenkins' latest obsession is moving EDI to the Internet, and he claims to have technology that can help banks secure a bigger role in the business.
"Banks are in a funny situation," Mr. Jenkins said. They are "not typically in the middle of the commerce transaction; they are at the end point."
But as EDI moves to the Internet, "banks can actually become much bigger players. Some of them have gotten very aggressive at understanding that," he said.
Banks have offered EDI services to corporate clients for years. But typically, only the biggest cash managers were involved, and many of these only offered electronic services because their largest clients compelled them to do so.
The cost of offering EDI is high for banks, largely because of the technology it requires. As a result, EDI has not been profitable for most institutions.
But many technology investments will disappear, Mr. Jenkins said, as EDI transactions move over the Internet. This could attract more businesses to EDI while simultaneously making it easier for banks to make money on the business.
About 100,000 companies in the United States already exchange several hundred million business files and payments electronically per year, but the high cost of EDI transmittal through traditional channels has caused many to look for cheaper alternatives.
Experts put the number of potential EDI users at two million, and this untapped base is a huge opportunity for those who can seize control of the business.
"It doesn't take a financial genius" to understand interest in EDI on the Internet, Mr. Jenkins said.
"We are moving into this new world," he said, "because of the ubiquitous network connectivity and because of these new cryptographic tools." The latter tools enable secure transmittal of business information over the wide-open Internet.
Several other providers of EDI technology are developing Internet services, including Sterling Commerce Inc., Dallas, and GE Information Services, Rockville, Md., a unit of General Electric Co.
These companies are chasing annual revenues from EDI services that are expected to hit $2.3 billion by 2000, according to Yankee Group, a research firm based in Boston. EDI-related revenues should total about $1 billion this year.
Premenos, which is based in Concord, Calif., is a leader of the pack, analysts said. And the company is increasingly interested in selling its wares to banks.
"Premenos had some early firsts that I think have been important," said Blane Erwin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
Mr. Erwin said Mr. Jenkins is "very much a forward thinker" and was among the first to articulate the concept of Internet-based EDI.
Mr. Jenkins got his start on EDI before it was even known by that name. He formed Apparel Computer Systems in 1978; the company supplied fashion industry clients like Calvin Klein and Izod with electronic business communications links.
"The notion of EDI was a no-brainer," Mr. Jenkins said. "Slowly, industry by industry, there was this huge merger along some kind of standard."
Mr. Jenkins, who is 48 years old, is betting the no-brainer for the 1990s will be moving EDI onto the Internet.
Premenos' most recent software product lets companies exchange business information over that global web of computer networks. The product, called Templar, is named after an order of knights that protected pilgrims and their money during journeys to the Holy Land beginning in the 10th century.
Transaction security on Templar resembles RSA Data Security Inc.'s public-private key system, which is considered one of the best methods of data security available.
With this and other Internet initiatives, Mr. Erwin said, Premenos has an early jump on the likes of Sterling and GE Information. But the competition is quickly making up ground.
Though Mr. Jenkins is confident that the Internet will become the preferred medium for EDI transactions, he is far from certain whether banks will be influential in creating standards for Internet EDI.
He said a "huge battle" is brewing among banks, the U.S. Postal Service, telephone companies, and cable television concerns over who will design the EDI business.
There are signs that banks want to be more involved in EDI, Mr. Jenkins said. Banks are saying, "We are going to create the trust model, and we are going to tie it to the banking relationship," he said.
BankAmerica Corp., Banc One Corp., Citicorp, and Huntington Bancshares are the most active players in the evolving EDI business, experts said.
BankAmerica is running an Internet-based financial EDI project with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Banc One has a similar project with Rowecom Inc., a publishing firm.
Yet despite these efforts, and despite the vision of Premenos and other companies, Internet-based EDI faces an uphill climb, said Forrester's Mr. Erwin.
Internet-based systems will render obsolete much of the EDI technology banks have already bought, and few will dump these investments without evidence that the alternative will be lucrative.
"Premenos did a great job of very early identifying a hot new market and product category - Web front-ends to traditional EDI," Mr. Erwin said.
But the company has let too much time go by, he added, allowing the competition to catch up.
